Many of the financial services companies that have received the majority of taxpayer-funded capital through the U.S. Treasury are likely in worse shape than previously disclosed, according to a research report.

Audit Integrity, a Los Angeles-based firm that rates companies based on corporate integrity risk, looked at the 25 financial services companies that have received more than 90 percent of funding doled out so far through the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

More than 80 percent of those companies have a “very aggressive” or “aggressive” accounting and governance risk rating based on recent regulatory filings, and have a high likelihood to restate earnings or be affected by other adverse events such as regulatory actions or shareholder litigation. That compares to a 35 percent “very aggressive” or “aggressive” rating among the 7,000 public companies measured overall by Audit Integrity.

Among the TARP recipients receiving the largest amount of taxpayer funds, the study rates Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch and Regions Financial Corp. as having a “weak” financial condition.

Zions Bancorporation, which operates Houston-based Amegy Bank of Texas, was the only financial services company that received TARP funding to earn a “conservative” rating during the most recent quarter.

“As a group these are very risky companies. The use of federal money to bail them out should be pause for concern on several levels,” said Jack Zwingli, Audit Integrity chief executive. “Unfortunately, the odds are that a number of these companies will fail at some level in the future, which raises the concern that the government is throwing good money after bad. At a minimum we should demand a thorough review of their accounting and corporate governance practices.”